HouseMath News

Amazon EC2

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Amazon has a new exprimental service that lets businesses set up virtual computers using their infrastructure. It's like hosting, but with a lot of control and Amazon instead of some little company behind it. You are using this site that I am controlling from New York, but it sits in what Amazon calls the "elastic compute cloud" -- EC2. It costs me very little, and it's their hardware and bandwidth. It is scaleable -- so if HouseMath ever need to expand, it's ready to go.

HouseMath API is here

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

For those thirsting to call the HouseMath engine from their web sites, a simple, quick, XML-based API is now in beta and available for testing. Most of the functionality of this site can now be used on the site of your choice. API DOC

New Wiki calculation details complete for all scenarios (done so far)

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Detailed calculation documentation available for Boston, Seattle, LA, Miami, and Dallas

Chicago deductions

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Minor change in Illinois state tax deduction calculations for the first month.

Condo common charges

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Condo common charge terminology and calculations modified to be less New York - like.

HouseMathWiki!

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The HouseMathWiki is up and running, and content is being added all the time. It features detailed explanations of all the mathematics used on this site. The initial release has detailed calculation documentation for our most popular cities: New York, Seattle, and San Francisco. Others will show up this week.

HouseMathWiki

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The wiki is an example of another site (a PHP Wiki app in this case) using the functionality of HouseMath. The Wiki asks HouseMath to describe the analytics is performs, and HouseMath not only provided results thought a web service, but complete documentation of every function and variable as well as equations and calculations rendered in LATEX. The Wiki is the first step to providing the best analytical real estate API in the industry. Period.

NYC Mortgage Tax

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Fixed a calculation error in NYC mortgage tax -- tax as % or mortgage, but was calculation as % of price.

Mongrel Cluster!

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Due to popular demand, HouseMath is starting to experience some more or less serious loads. So, the server is now configures as a cluster of mongrel servers which should help balance the load and improve reliability.

HouseMath Blog

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The HouseMath Blog is operational. I have been getting quite a few suggestions via the "feedback" email, and thought it would be a good place to discuss things. Visit: http://blog.housemath.us

Tax Changes for extremely short-term

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to one tax-savvy user, I was made aware that if there is a capital gain on a property with a holding period of less than 2 years, there is no usual "500K" deduction. So, for all the flippers, things get a little worse. Sorry, but many thanks for pointing that out. I really want this site to be an accurate tool and not just a pretty web toy.

Tax Changes, NYC

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Based on advice from some accounting people, tax calculations in NYC have been modified... It costs slightly more (the bottom line).

Chicago House scenario available

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Chicago house calculations now available. Condos on the way.

NYC Condo/Common Charges vs. Maintenance

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to the advice of some real estate people, common/maintenace charges are configured the way they are commonly applied in NYC (pun intended).

Happy New Year!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Many cool features in the works for 2007.

ZILLOW INTEGRATION

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

you can now search millions of properties from Zillow.com and plug their estimates right into HouseMath.

Unseen JSON goodness

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

There were many changes behind the scenes, getting things ready for some sweet features on the whiteboard.

Statistical Charts

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

You might have noticed the little pictures by some of the fields. Clicking on those pictures will bring up a chart of relevant statisitcal data I have been able to round up.

Dallas

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Added Dallas information. Another state without income taxes. How nice

Better tooltips

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

If click on the variables in the parameters grid, you will see a much better way of showing information on just what those values mean. The tooltips are no longer just tooltips, but fully-functional help windows. Click on "Interest Rate" for an example.

Why better tooltips?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Soon, those little windows will be showing location specific charts and formulas used to compute the values. Some of them can be pretty sophisticated, and look pretty cool, too.
For example, one of the equations used to calculate 'rent equivalent':

Nifty, eh? (yes, it's a Latex dynamically-generated image of a typeset equation.)

Miami

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Added calculations for Miami condos. Not very exciting -- FLA has no state income or capital gains taxes. Would love to talk to some Miami realtors to get the scoop on the closing costs.

Analytics

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Much work is taking place behind the scenes. One is the ability to provide some estimates based on values supplied by previous HouseMath users.

1,000 analyses

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Faster than I expected. Just 5 days after launch, more than 1,000 deals have been analyzed on HouseMath (10K+ if you count version 1). With new cities coming online almost every day, the numbers will, hopefully, keep growing.

L.A.

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Added calculations for Los Angeles. Similar to SF right now, but getting more input from L.A. Realtors.

Boston

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Added rudimentary calculations for Boston. Will fill in realtor details.

Some performance improvements

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A new compression mechanism is now in place which should make some of those JavaScripts load and perform a little faster.

Bookmark Links

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Every time you do a calculation, a link to the calculation is generated and placed on the toolbar as "LINK". You can bookmark this link, drag it to your desktop or folder, or email this link to easily return to the parameters you have set up for a calculation.

News Dialog

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This one.

Seattle Deals

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to the people from Redfin for providing some needed details on transactions in Seattle.

New Cities